Western Morning News (Saturday)
Sport should be a part of young people’s lives
DAME Katherine Grainger says the level of inactivity among adolescent girls is “depressing” – but hopes the Tokyo Olympics can convince a generation of females that there is a sport for everyone.
Grainger, the chair of UK Sport, which administers funding to elite athletes and their governing bodies, says athletes like climber Shauna Coxsey and skateboarder Sky Brown can only help demonstrate to young girls that the possibilities in terms of getting active are endless.
Figures from researchers at the World Health Organisation, out in November last year, found that 85 per cent of girls between 11 and 17 got less than one hour of physical activity per day. The study covered 146 countries and ran between 2001 and 2016.
“The first thing to say is how depressing that number is, it’s so disappointing on so many levels,” Grainger told the PA news agency in an exclusive interview to mark International Women’s Day.
“The most important thing is to find out why that number is so high, and what it is that’s stopping girls and young women from accessing sport.
“Not every girl wants to be a supersuccessful athlete, but you want everybody to be fit and healthy for the reason that it’s good for you. There’s so much evidence now that taking part in physical activity means you’re mentally sharper, and that mental health is enhanced by it.
“There are clearly a lot of competing reasons. I don’t believe we’ve got school sport right. That’s a whole different area to discuss – what place it should have in the curriculum, how teachers are trained. It should be part of young people’s lives, they should want to be physically literate as they are educationally literate.
“They enhance each other. For many people at school age it’s sidelined, it’s not given its place and I think that’s an ongoing challenge.”
There promises to be no shortage of female British stars who could light up the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games this summer.
Established stars such as Dina Asher-Smith, Katarina JohnsonThompson, Laura Kenny and Jade Jones could take their careers to their peaks this summer, while Amy Truesdale, Ellie Robinson and Ellie Simmonds go in the Paralympics.